The Impact Of The United States During The Cold War

The United States following World War II underwent a transformation that would change its role in the world forever. With the Soviet threat of communism looming over an increasing number of nations’ heads, the United States took on the responsibility of containing communism to stop its spread. In doing this America became a “World Police” patrolling the world and protecting nations from the threat of communism. In order to remain aligned with other democratic nations, for the first time ever, The United States involved itself in the peacetime alliance NATO. The threat of the Soviets also created the desire for covert operations in order to keep an eye on the Soviet’s plans militarily and technologically. This was why the United States created …show more content…
The United States during the Cold War was required to be very influential around the world because of their military might. Vietnam seemed like a simple fight for The United States, but the war dragged on deep into Nixon’s Administration due to the vietcong’s guerilla war tactics, and many Americans were fed up with the death total and long length of the war. Presidents Johnson and Nixon both weakened the role of the United States in the world due to their troubles in Vietnam. It was never officially considered a lost war; however, the world saw the United States as being weak due to their inability to win a war against a third world …show more content…
Many historians note that it was not until Reagan that the Cold War began to heat up again; however, The United States made up some lost ground as a world power during Carter’s Presidency when the Soviets failed to defeat the Afghan Mujahedeen revolt and were forced to leave Afghanistan. This can be seen as very similar to The United States’ failure to destroy the North Vietnamese and after the Soviets left Afghanistan they lost a similar amount of respect as a world power that the United States did following